The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic.

Ouch: Police move crowds away from Pyotr Pavlensky who nailed his testicles to a cobblestone

GRAPHIC: Russian man nails testicles to Red Square in protest

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society's development into a 'police state'.

Russia marked its annual Police Day holiday on Sunday.

It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to dramatic methods of protest.
He has previously sewn his lips together to demonstrate against the jailing of two female members of the Pussy Riot punk band who staged an anti-Kremlin performance inside Moscow's main cathedral in 2011.

He was also arrested after wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a Saint Petersburg government building in May.